The present invention pertains generally to electronic appliances, and more particularly to a simplified communications manager for appliance-to-appliance communications transactions.
The increasing use of portable computing appliances means that a user may store and work on data files on a fixed desktop computer at his workstation on site, and take a personal computing appliance such as a portable or palm top computer with him for use off-site. Data may be transferred between the desktop appliance and the personal computer appliance either by a close range infrared (I.R.) or other optical link, or a cable when the two are in close proximity, or via a modem link when the user has the personal computing appliance with him off site. The remote access provided by electronic appliances allows greater flexibility and convenience.
Appliances contain built in communications ability, such as infrared or very short range radio, which allows direct short distance communication. However, communications between appliances at a distance presents heightened challenges to users. Different communication standards, capabilities, and interfaces for plain old telephone systems (POTS), cellular telephones, wireless local area networks (LANs), and wide area networks (WANs) add complexity to individual appliances to manage the broad range of connections.
Accordingly, a need exists for a simplified appliance communications manager that allows direct appliance-to-appliance communication regardless of the complexity of establishing the logical communication connectionxe2x80x94either for short- or long-range communications.
In one embodiment, the invention comprises a method for allowing appliance-to-appliance communication transactions. The method begins when an appliance communications manager that stands apart from source and destination appliances receives a connection request from a source appliance. A phonebook having a plurality of phonebook entries, and stored in the appliance communications manager, is then accessed. Each of the phonebook entries includes a destination appliance identifier and associated destination appliance communication information. A user of the source appliance is presented with a list having a plurality of the phonebook entries. The appliance communications manager receives the identity of a destination appliance selected from said list and, via the appliance communications manager, a communication link is established with the selected destination appliance. When a communication message is received from the source appliance, the communication message is sent to the selected destination appliance.
In accordance with the invention, the appliance communications manager manages communications transactions between appliances. In the illustrative embodiment, the communications manager comprises a processor, memory, and one or more I/O communications functions that establish the connections between the appliances through a variety of communications standards, thereby enabling appliance-to-appliance connections through these multiple channels. Preferably, a standard appliance language such as Hewlett Packard""s JetSend(trademark) is used as the communications protocol for the connection links between the appliances. The appliance communications manager may be a stand-alone device or may be integrated into one or more appliances. As a stand-alone device, it may also include a display and keyboard to allow names, addresses, phone numbers, IP and/or other connection information to be input into and stored by the appliance communication manager in order to facilitate fast appliance-to-appliance connections.